Tesla Builds Hundreds of Optimus Robots Weekly, Report Says

Tesla produced several hundred Optimus robots per week last month, according to a report from The Information. The company moved its Model S and Model X production lines over to Optimus earlier this year.

The ramp-up is not simple. Optimus parts are smaller than car parts and must fit together more precisely. On the V3 version, the hands and forearms alone contain more than 100 screws and small components that a worker has to assemble by hand.

The V3 robots are lighter and carry more cameras than earlier versions. Tesla is also developing a sensing glove designed to make it easier to replace touch sensors without swapping out the entire hand.

Optimus has slipped behind schedule for years, and Elon Musk has called it Tesla's biggest product of all time. For now, the robots work only on internal tasks in limited areas, not in general settings and not through remote teleoperation.

Tesla reportedly plans to lease the robots at first rather than sell them, and intends to use training data collected from them to improve future versions. The push comes as other developers move toward less lifelike robot designs, and as Chinese regulators reportedly began holding back IPO listings for humanoid robotics companies earlier this month.